Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 290: 288: The Man Who Changed the Game

There was no need to wait for the race to start; when they stood at the starting line, waiting for the countdown, it was apparent that the “capsules” were of very different sizes.

At twenty-three, the gap is even more significant, let alone under the age of 16.

A gap of two years in age could result in a head’s difference in height.

This isn’t even considering the issue of being fat or thin…

On the race track where Lincoln weakened the gravity, a 12-year-old kid weighing 100 kg was quite terrifying!

Especially when his opponents were only a group of players weighing less than 50 kg!

Not to mention that, in the virtual game, negative effects in reality like getting tired quickly and not being able to run have been removed.

As a result, when he started running on the track, he was practically a heavy-duty tank, pushing everyone out of his way!

Lincoln saw it himself; five or six little girls were unable to dodge and were directly hit by him.

When they got up, their little faces were all scrunched up, as if they were about to cry…

The 1.95 -meter-tall player that Camille Victoria encountered wasn’t the “tall and skinny” type; his build was so strong that Lincoln even doubted his profession in reality.

—Isn’t rugby popular in Daxia?

This strong man, even in the standard track full of adults over the age of 16, would have the same effect as the “little chubby” in the children’s race.

Players in front of him were easily knocked over, creating chaos. The only consolation for Lincoln was that such players with ridiculous builds were still a tiny fraction among the tens of millions of players.

And for the problematic Children’s Track, he and Mavis had already divided them into three age groups in advance, at least avoiding the most extreme situations, such as “a player just turned 10 years old, encountering a player a day shy of 16 years old”…

Although they still couldn’t completely avoid the problem caused by height differences, at least the players could continue playing.

Furthermore, since the race was primarily for entertainment, the competitive atmosphere wasn’t too intense, so it wouldn’t cause any severe harm in the short term.

However, it was necessary to find a solution as soon as possible.

In the studio’s group chat, members assigned to the Paradise operation team were discussing strategies through paying attention to the dynamics of Spiritual Rhinoceros and the player forum.

—Although Lincoln set the work hours to end at five in the afternoon, the employees were used to finishing on time, followed by pursuing hobbies or learning to improve their skills.

However, when a new game was released or during important times like game development sprints, the employees would voluntarily work overtime.

After all, Cloud Dream not only offered generous bonuses for successful

projects, but also considerable overtime pay, meal and transportation allowances.

Even if the employees didn’t chant “overtime makes me happy,” they were more than willing to do so.

The first solution they came up with was: why not divide the players into different weight categories?

“[Competitive competition weight category] is a mature system that has been proven for a long time in the real world and can be directly applied to the game,” they said.

But Lincoln felt that it was too complicated and difficult to implement after just a little consideration.

It wasn’t that designing a race category system was complicated.

—If there’s a real need for it, it’s straightforward to do so. Lincoln just needed to touch his lips, and Mavis would snap her fingers, and that would be it. At most, they would make some minor adjustments based on big data later on.

However, collecting player weight data was another issue.

In the current game, players’ appearances were highly consistent with reality, but careful players noticed that the appearance was not a complete replica of reality, but a replica of the “self-perception image.”

The same goes for weight.

It’s not that the Mirage console is powerful enough to measure players’ exact weight based on brainwaves—that’s impossible…

Instead, the Mirage console captures the players’ self-perception of their weight and recreates it in the virtual world.

Moreover, this captured perception is a vague one.

The Mirage can only capture players’ superficial, vague perception, not read their precise memories.

Lincoln was the exception among exceptions because he had that mysterious gift and Mavis.

As a result, the replicated image might change synchronously according to the players’ self-perception.

For example, a player on a diet will find that, as their real-life weight gets lighter and lighter, their in-game figure gets better and better.

And if this player is observant enough, they will find something even more interesting: their in-game figure changes faster than in reality!

This is because the increase in self-confidence from losing weight, coupled with an unconscious optimism about exercise results, leads to a more noticeable difference between their virtual world image and their real-life one.

Having said all that, what I am trying to explain is that Cloud Dream doesn’t actually have accurate weight and height data for players, and these two pieces of data are within a certain fuzzy range, changing along with players’ self-perception.

To categorize players based on their weight, they need to fill in their weight information themselves.

And this touches upon players’ privacy concerns.

Would players object to being asked for sensitive physical data?

Most likely, many would.

And how can you verify if a player fills in a bit heavier or lighter?

While the obstacles are significant, it’s not entirely impossible.

The underlying algorithm that constructs the virtual world has a specific algorithm designed to anchor players’ height and weight data in fuzzy states so that there can be interactions between the player and the virtual world in the first place.

However, this algorithm is run in a sealed package.

If one doesn’t mind the hassle, a separate implementation can be made, adjusted specifically and then embedded into the system of “Paradise”.

Unfortunately, Lincoln despises hassle.

That’s why he prefers a simpler and cruder approach, such as assigning the same weight to everyone!

Each competition venue is given a standard “virtual weight”.

This “virtual weight” doesn’t actually make the players in the virtual world feel the “fake weight”.

Players still feel their perceived weight, but during a “collision,” the “virtual weight” will be used to calculate the collision effect.

The resulting scene might defy common sense—for example, a 35 kg child and a 100 kg child collide head-on, and there’s no clear winner…

But fairness issues are resolved!

Height problems can be dealt with in the same way: give each player the same stride!

And not just average stride—Lincoln is particularly generous here; he plans to give every player the largest stride data recorded since “Paradise” launched.

The player who set this record has an incredible height of 2.26 meters!

In every competition he participates, he stands out like a small giant.

Other players’ heads can only reach up to his waist!

With the plan settled, Lincoln moves swiftly toward an online hotfix.

All players in the matchmaking process get their matchmaking canceled, and those in competition receive a notice to wait for the update after the game ends.

Several minutes later, with all matches suspended, the hotfix begins!

As soon as they get the notice, the audience in the Super Tomato live streaming room gets fired up:

“My goodness! Lincoln goes back on his word and starts a hotfix!”

“Hahaha, still getting caught red-handed and not backing off, not stopping your cheating ways, how can Lincoln not be frustrated?”

“Knowing the law and breaking it, the crime is even worse!”

“Maybe Lincoln never left and hid in the streaming room all along, watching you messing around, and finally couldn’t stand it?”

“”Committing the crime right in front of the husband””

“Translate, translate, what’s meant by the ‘game-changing man’!”

“Speaking of, shouldn’t you, the anchor, perform an apology? /doghead”

The audience in the live streaming room is all saying the same thing, making Super Tomato himself feel a bit uncertain.

He speaks somewhat unconfidently: “It, it… Shouldn’t be…. right?”